2009-05-28

Ever since the Clinton administration concluded an agreement in 1994 that was supposed to prevent the Stalinist state from building nuclear weapons, a dismal pattern has been established.

North Korea tramples on the rules of international behaviour, so America bribes the regime with concessions in order to make it stop. North Korea then breaks the deal and behaves even more badly. So America offers more concessions. Then North Korea reneges on the agreement again. And America offers yet more inducements.

So the circle continues, with Kim Jong-il's regime managing the extraordinary feat of being rewarded for its delinquency. North Korea's first nuclear test in October 2006 was followed by a supposed diplomatic breakthrough the following year.

Under the agreement reached in February 2007, Mr Kim was supposed to give up his atomic arsenal and dismantle his nuclear reactor at Yongbyon in return for fuel, food and North Korea's removal from America's list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Needless to say, Mr Kim broke the deal, neither sacrificing his weapons nor dismantling Yongbyon. But America kept its side of the bargain in a fruitless effort to keep him on the straight and narrow. Last October, North Korea became only the second country after Libya to win removal from the State Department's terrorism list - and unlike Col Gaddafi's regime, Mr Kim did nothing concrete in return.